An African American teacher in Howard County is suing the school district, alleging that she was harassed by teachers and administrators because of her race.
In her suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court, Centennial High School English teacher Michelle Maupin accused staff members of creating a hostile work environment through disparaging comments, disruptions of her class and delays in receiving teaching materials, among other things. She is seeking at least $1.5 million in damages.
"She believes there's a larger issue of race at play within the school," said her attorney, Michael P. Coyle.
Howard School Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin said that he could not comment on the case but that one of the district's goals is "to have a safe and nurturing environment for students, staff and the community" and that it is "critical to the things that we do."
The lawsuit is the latest flare-up of racial tension at the Ellicott City school, which ranks among the top in the county in standardized test scores and is predominantly white. About 25 percent of its students are Asian, 6.3 percent are black and 1.6 percent are Hispanic.
Last year ago, the school was embroiled in a controversy over accusations that former chief academic officer Kimberly Statham and Assistant Superintendent Roger L. Plunkett, both black, used their positions to alter the academic record of Statham's daughter. The county school board eventually cleared the officials of wrongdoing, but the episode ripped apart the community.
Maupin, 37, of Columbia, was hired in August 2003 -- then the only black teacher out of 100 at the school. Her suit alleges that the harassment began shortly thereafter. Several parents of white students complained to the school's former principal, Lynda Mitic, about Maupin's teaching style. During a meeting two months later, the suit states, Mitic told Maupin, "Blacks are not warm and compassionate people" and questioned her ability to teach students at Centennial.
"That's utterly ridiculous," Mitic said yesterday. "Absolutely never happened." She declined to comment further.
Maupin's suit says that the harassment escalated after she complained to an administrator in the school district's central office about Mitic's comments. Materials that Maupin ordered in November arrived several months late. Teacher Margaret Polek, who stored several file cabinets in Maupin's room, disrupted class by slamming file doors and jangling her keys. During a banquet at the end of the year, a table of teachers left their seats when Maupin tried to join them.
"The damages are primarily emotional," Coyle said.
The harassment continued, the suit says, after Maupin filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on March 31, 2004. Staff members gave inaccurate evaluations of her classroom skills. And last fall, Polek left a newspaper article with a picture of an apelike animal on Maupin's desk, which the suit called "a clear reference to Maupin's race and size." Polek declined to comment on the case yesterday.
Centennial Principal Scott Pfeifer took the helm of the embattled school last fall and said he has not heard any systemic complaints of racism.
"I reached out to all, everyone in the Centennial community, as best as I could all year to make this a welcoming and warm environment for all the kids, for the parents and the students," he said. "And that includes Miss Maupin."
